baking Bread & Butter Hot Peppers?

Recently, my wife and I picked up some bread & butter jalapenos at the local farmer's market, and we were really impressed by them. They had a good amount of sweet followed by just the right amount of heat. I even made some peanut butter and sweet jalapeno sandwiches with them, which were downright amazing on the taste buds.

(BTW, if anyone from the Buffalo area is wondering, it was the Elmwood-Bidwell Farmer's Market, and the vendor was Saltamontes. He also makes hot sauces, pico de gallo, and an "atomic" salsa that has quickly become one of my all time faves. If you're ever in the Elmwood Village area on a Saturday during the spring and summer months, you should definitely visit his food stand. You won't be disappointed.)

Anyhow, these sweet jalapenos got my creative juices flowing, and wondering if it would be possible to apply a bread & butter recipe to habaneros, scotch bonnets, as well as hotter varieties of peppers. I've experimented with pickling habaneros before, and I was really happy with the results. Now I'm curious if I can make something sweeter.

So with that said, what are some suggestions for making my first batch of bread & butter habaneros? I know that the recipe will most likely require mustard seed, celery seed, cloves, and turmeric. What else though? Are there any special ingredients I will need to guarantee that the habaneros remain crisp after the pickling process?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. - I found this recipe on here.

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/24464-pickled-peppers/

Sounds close to what I'm looking for. I just may need to switch up or add a couple of ingredients.

I recently saw premade bread and butter packets at my local grocery store...keep us posted on how it turns out.

ghostpeppers541 said:

I recently saw premade bread and butter packets at my local grocery store

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I will have to check and see if they have something similar at my neighborhood grocer. It would probably be cheaper than buying everything separately.

keep us posted on how it turns out.

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Will do. After talking it over with my wife, I think we will be picking up the ingredients for this over the weekend. So hopefully I'll have a recipe to share before long.

UPDATE: So I cracked open my latest batch of pickled habaneros last night, and they were FIRE. They were way hotter than the last batch for sure, and I think adding 1/2 tbsp of cayenne powder to the recipe was the reason for that. I also added 1/2 of an onion and 5 huge garlic cloves (minced), and the flavor from both was noticeable, but not really overpowering. The chunks of onion were still super crisp too. I can't wait to try these habaneros and onions on some burgers this weekend.

Honestly, I think I've hit the mark with the heat level I was aiming for. Now I just need to add some sweet to back up the heat, and I will have the perfect bread & butter habanero recipe.



BTW, this morning, when discussing ideas for the bread & butter habaneros with my wife, she suggested adding fresh ginger to the recipe. Now as much as I love ginger, I'm not too sure if it would be a good fit for sweet pickled habs. But if anyone else has experimented with that before, and had good results, I'm up for trying it. It just doesn't seem like the greatest idea though.

The above linked message involved using alum, which is fine in small amounts, but is not good for you if you are eating a lot of it. It is a salt of aluminum, and having a lot of dissolved aluminum in your body = not good. Alternatives are grape leaves or soaking your peppers in pickling lime.

chsy83 said:

The above linked message involved using alum, which is fine in small amounts, but is not good for you if you are eating a lot of it. It is a salt of aluminum, and having a lot of dissolved aluminum in your body = not good. Alternatives are grape leaves or soaking your peppers in pickling lime.

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Thank you for the pointer. Quick question though. If I chose to use grape leaves or pickling lime, how much should be used???

Not sure . . . as far as the lime goes, you just soak them before pickling, you don't put it in the pickling mixture. Grape leaves, I think people put one or two leaves a pint jar.